U.S. intelligence agencies update surveillance policies

U.S. intelligence agencies updated their policies after a watchdog agency issued 22 recommendations encouraging greater oversight and limitations. The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) said in a report last month that the all of its recommendations involving the CIA, FBI, and NSA were “implemented in full or in part, or the relevant government agency has taken significant steps toward adoption and implementation.”

Meanwhile, U.S. officials requesting anonymity confirmed that the FBI updated its policies, according to a report from The Guardian. The FBI's revised policy limits searches of data collected by the NSA, the officials said. The FBI's surveillance authorities are recertified annually, as required by Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

The PCLOB's recommendations included documenting how often NSA agents collect information about individuals in the U.S. and declassifying procedures used by the CIA, FBI, and NSA. These recommendations were reported just before the declassification last month of a report by the NSA's inspector general. The report demonstrated that the agency's Internet surveillance program tracked fewer Americans than was previously suspected.